I hope I have not ruined my muzzloader?Help!!

Idaho Ron said:

No new stuck bullets

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found a new job for grease zerks. replaced my nipple on a cva mountain rifle barrel with a zerk. stood it up and poured it full of rust away or whatever. always had a drip, drip, trying to plug the cone. guess i will forego pumping it out tomorrow though!

I use glass cleaner to clean, ditch the bore butter, I always got rust when using it. Use light oil or other rust preventive.
Minor rust can be removed with steel wool on a jag.
Nit Wit

John V. said:

I bought a new Traditions .50 cal Pennsylvania Long rifle. I bought it NIB. Took it out on Sunday two weeks ago and she shot flawlessly.I really enjoyed shooting her and I am "hooked"...again.Shooting 3F black-powder. Anyway I knew enough that I had to clean her right away, so I swabbed the bore with "Moose Milk" from Dixie Gun-works while at the range. Then I got her home and ran Moose Milk soaked patches down her bore until they came out clean (or so I thought)then I hung her on her hooks in my den. Life is good, happy as a lark. Until today. I got to looking at her and noticed a white "fungus" forming around the nipple area, so I took her down and ran another "Moose Milk" soaked patch down her. OMG! I could barley get the patch down her and when I pulled the patch out it was DARK brown. I panicked and started soaking patches with Moose Milk and running them through her. The first 4-5 patches were very brown then they started to lighted in color some. All in all I ran at least 20 patches down her and they came out what looks clean in the end. I had since bought some T/C Bore Butter and I ran a few dry patches down her bore, then I saturated a clean patch with the T/C Bore Butter and ran that in and out a few times. My question is. Do you think I have ruined my bore? The thought of this almost makes me sick.I love this muzzle loader. Please advise. Thanks.

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Just me, but after I clean my ML, I always coat the bore with Barricade. Never has an issue with rusting.

I disagree... just a bit. I've been using hot soapy water to clean with and T/C Bore Butter for many years. Whether or not my bore is "seasoned" is not something I will argue. I don't know if it is or isn't. You certainly CAN get a carbon coating on steel if you want to. The Chinese have been doing it for generations on woks... though admittedly, those woks are not made from high carbon steel. I will say that I coat the bore(s) with BB after the barrel is dry with every cleaning session. I do this with a cotton patch and a fitted jag. The biggest gun ruster is water. That needs to be removed thoroughly. I do it by using HOT water, running a couple of dry patches through it, blowing out anything left in the breech and waiting a few minutes for the rest to evaporate. Then I give it a light coat of Bore Butter.

A final step that I learned only a few years ago is to put a 1" cotton patch lubed with any good gun oil on the nipple and under the hammer. With a flintlock, you just put that oily patch under the frizen.

I've never had any issues with rust., though I own several guns that got pretty rusty before I owned them.

Now, whether my barrel is seasoned or not, when I started using non-petroleum products for patch lube, in the late 80's, I found I had much less fowling and much easier cleaning because of that. I'm gonna continue to use BB and lard and other animal-derived products, though I have heard that olive oil works well as a patch lube.

Has anyone tried to use Bumblin' Bear Grease, available from October Country? I heard a few good things about it.

Seasoning a bore was a thing back when barrels were Iron.

You can't season modern steel. It's a gimmick designed to sell Bore Butter

I think your bore is fine. I'd shoot it to blow some of the rust out

I bought a used cap and ball brasser revolver from a coworker he says "his uncle " had fired Pyrodex in and never cleaned. I basically just cleaned out what I could and fired a few cylinders through it. Then thoroughly cleaned. I didn't see any noticeable damage

John V. said:

Thank you. I will take the soap and water to it tomorrow after I get home from work. Would it hurt to take a soapy/wet brass 20 gauge bore brush to it to work out any left over rust?

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DO NOT run a bore brush down the barrel!! Speaking from personal experience (and I have a thread somewhere here to back it up) if the brush becomes stuck in the barrel you're in a world of hurt. There are other ways to remove rust from the barrel. I'm sure someone will be happy to give their advice on those.

If you do run a bore brush, twist in the direction of the threads, generally clockwise in my experience, to "unlock" the bristles before pulling it out. If it seems you feel the brush loosening off, turn the other way.

If you lose a bore brush in the barrel for any reason, a hollow tubular curtain rod that fits the bore as closely as possible, can be pushed down around the bristles and allows easy removal. Push it as deep as possible to trap as many bristles as possible.

Ask me how I know.

Way to go guys, this thread dates to 2015

dave951 said:

Way to go guys, this thread dates to 2015

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thats OK dave, most of us posters date from well back in the last century! many of us from well into the first half of the last century!
and many of us still start to write dates from the last century on documents! or is that just me?

2015 is nothing, I recently revived a thread on another forum that I started myself in 2004 and half the people who originally responded are probably deceased

John V. said:

I bought a new Traditions .50 cal Pennsylvania Long rifle. I bought it NIB. Took it out on Sunday two weeks ago and she shot flawlessly.I really enjoyed shooting her and I am "hooked"...again.Shooting 3F black-powder. Anyway I knew enough that I had to clean her right away, so I swabbed the bore with "Moose Milk" from Dixie Gun-works while at the range. Then I got her home and ran Moose Milk soaked patches down her bore until they came out clean (or so I thought)then I hung her on her hooks in my den. Life is good, happy as a lark. Until today. I got to looking at her and noticed a white "fungus" forming around the nipple area, so I took her down and ran another "Moose Milk" soaked patch down her. OMG! I could barley get the patch down her and when I pulled the patch out it was DARK brown. I panicked and started soaking patches with Moose Milk and running them through her. The first 4-5 patches were very brown then they started to lighted in color some. All in all I ran at least 20 patches down her and they came out what looks clean in the end. I had since bought some T/C Bore Butter and I ran a few dry patches down her bore, then I saturated a clean patch with the T/C Bore Butter and ran that in and out a few times. My question is. Do you think I have ruined my bore? The thought of this almost makes me sick.I love this muzzle loader. Please advise. Thanks.

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some of the Moose Milk concoctions contain Hydrogen Peroxide. Guess what happens when you put Hydrogen Peroxide on steel.

Seasoning is BS of the highest order! A ‘hold over’ from days of yore! The old steels may have worked but our new steels….no! Clap trap folly!

Cheapest and best thing for cleaning BP comes out of your faucet!!

dave951 said:

Way to go guys, this thread dates to 2015

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Yeah, but old threads are great for new people. Or for those of us that may be a little Biden minded!

Soapy water works the best! I use RIG or Hoppes gun oil to prevent rust. I have had great results for the past few years with RIG.
I tried Bore Butter as a rust preventative and it was not very effective. It’s great to shoot with as a lube.
Naval jelly with remove any rust in your bore. Then just coat it with a good preventative. If there is a little etching or slight putting, your bore will probably still shoot just fine. Good luck.